Instead of alerting authorities, she encouraged Roy to take his own life, according to court documents.

A police report says: “Not only did Conrad tell Carter in several of his texts prior to his death that he was scared and didn’t want to leave his family, she continued to encourage him to take his own life, and when he actually started to carry out the act, he got scared again and exited his truck, but instead of telling him to stay out of the truck … Carter told him to ‘get back in.’”

Carter was indicted on involuntary manslaughter charges in juvenile court, so she won’t get a lengthy sentence if found guilty.

She posted a $2,500 bond and was ordered to not use the Internet or send text messages.

After Roy’s death, Carter raised $2,300 at a charity softball event she set up called “Homers for Conrad.”

On National Suicide Awareness Day in September she tweeted “I wish more people understood. I love you and miss you everyday Conrad. Help others #WeCanEndSuicide.”

She retweeted the link to a suicide prevention hotline a couple of weeks later.

Roy’s grandfather doesn’t understand Carter’s motivation.

“How anybody could be that low?” said Conrad Roy Sr. He owns seven tug boats and said he was proud of Conrad, who got his captain’s license at 18.

Why didn’t she help?

According to court documents, Carter sent a text message to another friend saying she told Roy to go through with his plan because if he didn’t, she was worried “he would do it all over again.”

]]>http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/03/02/18-year-old-indicted-for-encouraging-friends-suicide/feed/0grmiiiMom sends bruised child to school in ‘good whoopin’ shirthttp://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/02/26/mom-sends-bruised-child-to-school-in-good-whoopin-shirt/
http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/02/26/mom-sends-bruised-child-to-school-in-good-whoopin-shirt/#commentsThu, 26 Feb 2015 13:17:14 -5Thu, 26 Feb 2015 12:37:21 -5http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/?p=1053There’s a big fat line between discipline and child abuse, but many parents have no trouble making that leap.

Melany Joyce Alexander, 31, is charged with child abuse. She admitted beating the middle school student with a belt that had metal rivets on it, leaving bruises and marks on the child’s neck, arms and back.

Authorities would not reveal the age of the child, but since she’s a middle school student she’s probably around 13. The girl is now living with her stepfather.

Hopefully, the lengthy note Alexander wrote on her kid’s white T-shirt gave her a permanent case of carpal tunnel.

On the front of the shirt it said:

“My name is [girl’s name]. I currently have all F’s in all of my classes. I am not aloud to have a boyfriend no time soon. So back off before I get another good woopin like I got last night. Also I can no longer have any friends until all of my F’s are all brought up to C’s and up!!!”

The back reads:

“So unless you are helping me with this goal … back off!!! My eating French fries and being a social butterfly is over because I know why my parents send me to school. I now know the IMPORTANCE of my education. I will learn. I will listen to my teachers and be respectful, at all times. I will do these things because I am failing due to my social life. Want to be my friend : ) Help me by not!!!”

I fully support teaching children the value of an education, but it seems this mom could use an education herself.

A BB gun is considered a deadly weapon under Florida law and McKenzie faced a minimum sentence of 4 years in prison.

McKenzie’s appointed lawyers, however, were able to figure out Tallahassee police were using a “secret” device to track McKenzie’s location. A state judge ordered police to show the device — a cell-tower simulator sometimes called a StingRay — to the attorneys.

Instead of showing the device in public court, prosecutors offered a plea “deal of the century” — six months probation.

What does a StingRay do?

It is a $100,000 suitcase-sized electronic device that tricks all cellular devices in the area into sending data, which can be captured and recorded. The company that makes them, Harris Corp. of Melbourne, Fla., which may have misled the FCC about their use, says the devices are for emergencies only, but untold police departments routinely use them.

Phones don’t need to be actively in use to send data to a StingRay, and the devices often interrupt phone service in the area they are used.

Other devices that use cellular networks — laptops and tablets — are also tricked into transmitting data.

The ACLU says Tallahassee police have used the StingRay hundreds of times, and not for emergencies.

Decades ago, the woman, who is not identified or criminally charged, said Alexander was the father of his child and not helping her financially.

More recently, the woman has told the court she was making stuff up.

DNA evidence has proven Alexander is not the father. He had never spent any time with the child or had any other children.

Still, judges have demanded Alexander repay the state funds given to the woman or go to jail.

The real father of the child, meanwhile, has no legal troubles and is now “part of the adult child’s life,” reports WXYZ.

Alexander was unaware the woman had listed him as a father until he was pulled over for a traffic ticket in Detroit in the early 1990s. Since then, Alexander has been to court a dozen times trying to get the situation corrected, but the judge ruled today that Alexander had to file a motion within a year of the woman filing for welfare.

The other lie that doomed Alexander?

A process server claimed Alexander was given a copy of a court order but refused to sign it. That scenario seems impossible, however, since jail records show Alexander was incarcerated at the time and was no longer living at the address the process server visited.

“How can you start a case with a lie?” said Alexander. “The mom lied. The process server lied. Now I have to pay for it.”

Alexander said he did not immediately file a motion to counter his old girlfriend’s claim because he had just gotten out of prison when he learned of the legal imbroglio, and was completely broke and could not hire an attorney.

He also had an 8th-grade education and probably didn’t understand this debt would continue to plague him.

Attorney Cherika Harris is trying to right the wrong by working the case for free.

“The law is not going to fit into everybody’s situation,” said Alexander. “Why don’t they use common sense?”

Or why doesn’t the judge make the people that lied pay back the $30,000? I guess that would be too similar to justice.

]]>http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/02/18/man-with-no-kids-ordered-to-pay-30000-in-child-support/feed/0grmiiiJudge: ‘Upskirt’ photo of girl, 13, not illegalhttp://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/02/11/judge-upskirt-photo-of-girl-13-not-illegal/
http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/02/11/judge-upskirt-photo-of-girl-13-not-illegal/#commentsWed, 11 Feb 2015 11:48:36 -5Wed, 11 Feb 2015 11:45:12 -5http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/?p=1027I tend to think we have too many laws, many of which are unenforced or unenforceable.

But the state of Oregon needs at least one more.

Recently, a state judge ruled a 61-year-old man who took an ‘upskirt’ photo of a 13-year-old girl did not break the law.

The judge ruled the act did not violate privacy and child porn laws because the photos were taken in public and did not show nudity.

Oregon (and other state laws) laws prevent the taking of pictures where a reasonable expectation of privacy exists: bathrooms, lockers, etc.

Since the girl was not nude or taking part in a sex act the photos skirted child porn laws.

Defense attorney Mark Lawrence said “It’s incumbent on us as citizens to cover up whatever we don’t want filmed in public places.”

On the losing side of the argument was human decency.

“Sure, [the girl is in] a public place. But she had an expectation of privacy that a deviant isn’t going to stick a camera up her skirt and capture private images of her body,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Maloney said.

The judge called his ruling “upsetting, to sat the least.”

Under Georgia law (OCGA 16-12-100.2), the creepy old man’s actions would be illegal only if he sent the photos to another computer. Georgia law makes it a crime to “transmit any audio or visual image of a child for sexual purposes” including “sexual excitement.”

Privacy is a tricky issue, but if Oregon can’t come up with better laws they need to come up with more clever judges.

If you are 80 and a 27-year-old woman wants to marry you, something other than love may be her motive.

This is especially true if you are in prison and your name is Charles Manson.

The New York Post reports the serial killer called off the nuptials because the bride-to-be wanted to put his corpse on display.

The woman, Afton Elaine Burton, also known as “Star,” believed a “Lenin’s Tomb-esque attraction would draw a huge number of visitors” and make her a lot of money. She had initially asked Manson to sign a legal document giving her his body, but when he refused to sign she hatched the plan to marry the cult leader.

Manson said he is against the wedding for two reasons: He is immortal, and therefore the plan is stupid, and he does not wish to “spend eternity displayed in a glass coffin.”

“He’s finally realized that he’s been played for a fool,” said journalist Daniel Simone.

Anyone that hatches a plan too crazy for Charles Manson needs to have their head examined.

Anecdotally, it seems female teachers convicted of having sex with a student fare better in court than their male counterparts.

Darcy M. Smith (Image from KIRO-TV)

That theory may be tested near Seattle, where 41-year-old Darcy M. Smith faces three charges of child rape for having sex with a student she invited to live in her home.

KIRO-TV reports the sixth-grade teacher in SeaTac, Washington, showered the boy with gifts after he broke his collarbone when he was 12. She drove him to the hospital and the boy eventually was allowed to live with her instead of his parents.

In 2008, the boy turned 14 and said Smith began sexually abusing him, often after Smith drank wine and her husband and other children had gone to bed.

The abuse continued until the boy moved out of the home at age 18, the boy alleged in court documents.

In 2012, while the teen still lived in the home, Smith was named the area’s “Teacher of the Year.”

The young man, now 19, first reported the abuse to police in May. Smith was quickly put on paid leave by the school, but parents were not informed of the accusations until recently.

Researchers in 1988 concluded police officers and social workers were “more likely to minimize reports of child sexual abuse when the alleged perpetrator was female. Even when the abuse was substantiated, the professionals participating in the study considered it less appropriate to register the incident as a case of child sexual abuse if the perpetrator was female.”

Treating women differently is human nature, I think, but that doesn’t do a serious crime justice.

In Alabama, a Wal-Mart manager has been fired for chasing down a suspected shoplifter and getting punched in the face.

Don Watson, a night manager at a Prattville, Al., store, heard a store alarm indicating an emergency door was open and saw a “habitual shoplifter” pushing a shopping cart full of purloined ...]]>

Despite the occasional scowl from co-workers, I’ve never been beaten at work.

Those who regularly confront criminals probably can’t say that.

In Alabama, a Wal-Mart manager has been fired for chasing down a suspected shoplifter and getting punched in the face.

Don Watson, a night manager at a Prattville, Al., store, heard a store alarm indicating an emergency door was open and saw a “habitual shoplifter” pushing a shopping cart full of purloined goods in the parking lot.

Forgetting his corporate training, Watson confronted the man, and got into a minor scuffle, reports AL.com. Watson was able to hold the man until security guards from a nearby office complex arrived to help and police officers arrested the suspect.

Less than a month later, Wal-Mart fired Watson for “gross misconduct” and not following store security procedures.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said “We don’t think there is any amount of stolen merchandise that is worth anyone’s life. Associates are trained to follow certain security measures.”

Watson says Wal-Mart teaches employees to not chase a shoplifter more than 10 feet from the store but it is a rule frequently broken.

Ten feet isn’t very far. At a recent shoplifter’s combine, even slow criminals covered that distance in just a couple of seconds.

Watson says he was tasked with reducing shoplifting and was trying to protect associate bonuses. The store’s loss prevention officers make their own schedules and were not on duty that night, he said.

The alleged shoplifter was charged with robbery and had more than $1,100 of merchandise in the cart. He had stolen merchandise totaling more than $3,500 in the previous nine days, Watson said.

The man is accused of stealing from other area Wal-Marts stores on the same nights he hit the Prattville location.

If you are an employer near Montgomery, Ala., Watson is now looking for a job in the $50,000-a-year range.

Sometimes Big Brown delivers a little yellow: UPS drivers have a tough job, especially in slow — or stopped — traffic. One Houston driver appeared to make up a little time by throwing a package over a fence and taking his bathroom break on a home. Unfortunately for the now-fired driver, the home had some really good security cameras. The homeowner, Ben Lucas, said his new “ammo cleaning machine” was broken by the throw and he feels like he “paid someone to pee on his home.” Lucas said he called UPS to complain, but did not like their initial response. So, he learned how to edit video and uploaded it to the Atlanta-based shipping company’s Facebook page. It didn’t take long for Lucas to get a call from someone asking “What can Brown do for you?”

Can good football kill you? I doubt it, but a team of economists and health professionals looked at data from 1979 to 2009 and concluded that having a team play in the Super Bowl resulted in an 18 percent increase in influenza deaths. The Tulane University study suggest the increased deaths may be due to increased socialization of fans during the peak flu season. The city hosting a Super Bowl faces no increased health risks, the study says, but fans in the cities that send teams to the big game must be gathering in large groups, partying and coughing on each other. The good news? From what I’ve seen of the Falcons, Atlanta may have a record low number of flu deaths in 2015.

Nudity-loving cop avoids prison: I’m not sure what percent of people store nude photos of themselves on their phones, but police officers probably know. Former California Highway Patrol officer Sean Harrington pleaded “no contest” to felony charges that alleged he secretly copied and shared explicit photos of female DUI suspects with his fellow officers. Harrington admitted to looking through the phones of women he put in jail and forwarding their nude pics “four to six” times. One woman figured out her phone had been used to forward her photos to an unknown number — Harrington’s. DUI charges against her and another woman were later dropped by police. The officers who received the pictures were not punished. Harrington? He will be on felony probation for three years and must speak at a community violence solutions class. What makes the judge think anyone wants to listen to this guy?